200 years of independence for Haiti - first black republic -a nation created by former slaves <MAP NAME="boxmap-p14"><AREA SHAPE="RECT" COORDS="37, 588, 126, 600" HREF="" ><AREA COORDS="0,0,10000,10000" HREF="" ></MAP><img src="" width="160" height="600" border="0" usemap="#boxmap-p14" alt="Shop at Amazon.com"> 200 years of independence for Haiti A brief summary of Haitian history leading to the first nation created by former African slaves 200 years ago. The first black republic The first black republic is only 200 years old. For the first time an army of slaves defeated the oppressors and a new state was born. January 1st 2004 Haiti celebrated 200 years of independence. Rebellion among slaves happened frequently in all the slave-colonies but the rebels very seldom succeeded to gain anything but more misery. Haiti (St.

Domingue as the colony in the Caribbean was then called) was one of the richest colonies in the world producing mainly coffee and sugar. And as most other colonies in the 18th and 19th century it was completely dependent on the work of slaves imported from Africa. Christopher Columbus arrived in 1492. First Spanish and then French people made plantations started importing slaves in great numbers. Revolution News of the French revolution in 1789 affected the political climate for everybody on the island. The white farmers started discussing the possibility of independence from France, but too late they realised that also their black slaves could have dreams of “freedom, equality and brotherhood”. In August 1791 an uprising against the French farm-owners started among the slaves in Haiti. There was a clear majority of black slaves in the population and at first they had no problems in taking over control. Plantations were destroyed and many whites were killed or forced to flee from the island. French, Spanish, and English troops came aid. They were fighting each other for control but they all agreed the main aim: to prevent black domination in a former colony.

François Toussaint L'Ouverture, the grandson of an African chief, became the military leader of the former slaves. Toussaint remained in charge in the following many years of frequent battles, but in 1802 he was captured by French forces and later died in a French prison. Independence With the French arrival a revolution started once again and when it was finally over, an army of black slaves had their victory against the army of Napoleon. On January 1st 1804, Jean-Jacques Dessalines, an African-born ex-slave could declare Haiti independent. It was the first black republic in the world and the first country in the Western hemisphere to abolish slavery completely. As word got around the black population in Haiti became inspiration for Africans in the rest of the world. Haiti today The historical events 200 years ago are well worth remembering, but unfortunately the story of Haiti since then has been very unstable and far from glorious. Officially Haiti is a republic with an elected government, but ruling today is Jean-Bertrand Aristide who has turned out to be a dictator of almost same level as the infamous François “Papa Doc” Duvalier.

Aristide came to power in 1994 with the help of US troops. Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier escaped with a fortune to live a happy life in southern France. Most Haitians and the outside world celebrated the return of Aristide and had high hopes for a democratic future of the Country. All started well, but within a few years he lost interest in improving living conditions for his people and most human rights where violated. There are many reasons for the change in Aristide. Some of them are probably personal paranoia and others were the pressure from first of all the US and French governments, trying to push forward with their own political motives. When Aristide refused to do as he was told the outside world answered with economic embargos on Haiti and a landslide had started. Aristide won the 2000-elections with 92 percent of the votes. Obviously the ballots were fixed and as a result Haiti lost even more of the international support and aid. Today Aristide used the 200-years anniversary for his own political motives, but the nation of Haiti today could hardly be described as free and there was not much to celebrate for its 7.5 million inhabitants.

Torture, murders, political violence, gang-wars and violation of most other human rights are taking place every day. In public speeches Aristide talked about love to the people and the common struggles of the black race –but he was completely out of touch with his own people -and only relied on hired (white) mercenaries from the US. Writers and intellectuals in Haiti protested strongly against the use of the historical events for political propaganda in a democracy that was about to collapse completely. Many of these protestors was arrested and imprisoned without any legal rights. Two famous reporters were gunned down in 2000 and people close to the government obscured investigations. In the end of 2003 demonstrations against the Aristide-regime took place almost daily. Police forces controlled directly from the presidential palace were hitting hard on any signs of uprising. Aristide leaves Haiti In the end of February riots increased in Haiti and different rebel groups finally forced Aristide to leave Haiti with the help (or force) of US miltary forces. He is currently in exile in the Central-African Republic. The situation in Haiti is currently chaotic and uncertain because of the many different groups of rebels who are probably not better rulers than Aristide himself.

Earthquake In 2008 a number of tropical storms kills almost 800 people in Haiti, but in January 2010 is should get even worse for the hard tried nation. The worst earthquake in more than 200 years hits the island with an epicenter near the capital Port-Au-Prince. More than 230.000 people died in the earthquake! Infrastructure and nearly everything else got a final blow, leaving Haiti in chaos and making the relief aid even more difficult. Help form the outside world is urgently needed. Links to donation pages for the major Danish aid-organisations currently working in Haiti: Haiti - INDEPENDENT HAITI INDEPENDENT HAITI Haiti Table of Contents On January 1, 1804, Haiti proclaimed its independence. Through this action, it became the second independent state in the Western Hemisphere and the first free black republic in the world. Haiti's uniqueness attracted much attention and symbolized the aspirations of enslaved and exploited peoples around the globe. Nonetheless, Haitians made no overt effort to inspire, to support, or to aid slave rebellions similar to their own because they feared that the great powers would take renewed action against them.

For the sake of national survival, nonintervention became a Haitian credo. Dessalines, who had commanded the black and the mulatto forces during the final phase of the revolution, became the new country's leader; he ruled under the dictatorial 1801 constitution. The land he governed had been devastated by years of warfare. The agricultural base was all but destroyed, and the population was uneducated and largely unskilled. Commerce was virtually nonexistent. Contemplating this bleak situation, Dessalines determined, as Toussaint had done, that a firm hand was needed. White residents felt the sting most sharply. While Toussaint, a former privileged slave of a tolerant white master, had felt a certain magnanimity toward whites, Dessalines, a former field slave, despised them with a maniacal intensity. He reportedly agreed wholeheartedly with his aide, Boisrond-Tonnerre, who stated, "For our declaration of independence, we should have the skin of a white man for parchment, his skull for an inkwell, his blood for ink, and a bayonet for a pen!" Accordingly, whites were slaughtered wholesale under the rule of Dessalines.

Although blacks were not massacred under Dessalines, they witnessed little improvement in the quality of their lives. To restore some measure of agricultural productivity, Dessalines reestablished the plantation system. Harsh measures bound laborers to their assigned work places, and penalties were imposed on runaways and on those who harbored them. Because Dessalines drew his only organizational experience from war, it was natural for him to use the military as a tool for governing the new nation. The rule of Dessalines set a pattern for direct involvement of the army in politics that continued unchallenged for more than 150 years. In 1805 Dessalines crowned himself Emperor of Haiti. By this point, his autocratic rule had disenchanted important sectors of Haitian society, particularly mulattoes such as P�tion. The mulattoes resented Dessalines mostly for racial reasons, but the more educated and cultured gens de couleur also derided the emperor (and most of his aides and officers) for his ignorance and illiteracy. Efforts by Dessalines to bring mulatto families into the ruling group through marriage met with resistance. P�tion himself declined the offer of the hand of the emperor's daughter.

Many mulattoes were appalled by the rampant corruption and licentiousness of the emperor's court. Dessalines's absorption of a considerable amount of land into the hands of the state through the exploitation of irregularities in titling procedures also aroused the ire of landowners. The disaffection that sealed the emperor's fate arose within the ranks of the army, where Dessalines had lost support at all levels. The voracious appetites of his ruling clique apparently left little or nothing in the treasury for military salaries and provisions. Although reportedly aware of discontent among the ranks, Dessalines made no effort to redress these shortcomings. Instead, he relied on the same iron-fisted control with which he kept rural laborers in line. That his judgement in this matter had been in error became apparent on the road to Port-au-Prince as he rode with a column of troops on its way to crush a mulattoled rebellion. A group of people, probably hired by P�tion or Etienne-Elie G�rin (another mulatto officer), shot the emperor and hacked his body to pieces. Under Dessalines the Haitian economy had made little progress despite the restoration of forced labor.

Conflict between blacks and mulattoes ended the cooperation that the revolution had produced, and the brutality toward whites shocked foreign governments and isolated Haiti internationally. A lasting enmity against Haiti arose among Dominicans as a result of the emperor's unsuccessful invasion of Santo Domingo in 1805. Dessalines's failure to consolidate Haiti and to unite Haitians had ramifications in the years that followed, as the nation split into two rival enclaves. Custom Search Hope for the Children Of Haiti Only 52.9% of those over 15 can read and write NATIONAL HOLIDAY�INDEPENDENCE DAY�JANUARY 1 Haiti became the first black republic to declare its independence in 1804. ECONOMY Haiti remains the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. It ranks 165th of 184 countries from richest to poorest, with 77% of the population living below the poverty line. The per capita income in Haiti is $225 per year. The vast majority of Haitians live on less than $2 per day. LANGUAGE French is the official language of the government and business, but Haitian Creole, a mixture of French and African languages, is primarily spoken.

HISTORICAL OVERVIEW The native Taino Amerindians, who inhabited the island of Hispaniola when it was discovered by Christopher Columbus in 1492, were virtually annihilated by Spanish settlers within 25 years. In the early 17th century, the French established a presence on Hispaniola. In 1697, Spain ceded to the French the western third of the island, which later became Haiti. The French colony, based on forestry and sugar related industries, became one of the wealthiest in the Caribbean. This was accomplished only through the importation of African slaves and considerable environmental degradation. In the late 18th century, Haiti's nearly half million slaves revolted under Toussaint L�Ouverture. After a prolonged struggle, Haiti became the first black republic to declare its independence in 1804. Haiti has been plagued by political violence for most of its history. After an armed rebellion led to the forced resignation and exile of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in February 2004, an interim government took office to organize new elections under the auspices of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH).

Continued violence and technical delays prompted repeated postponements, but Haiti finally did inaugurate a democratically elected President, Rene Preval, and Parliment in May of 2006. In 2008, many Haitians demonstrated over rising food prices. Demonstrations included burning tires in the street blocking major roads. This continued through 2009. When the 7.0 earthquake happened at the beginning of 2010, the lack of infrastructure and widespread poverty only increased the magnitude of disaster. An accurate body count was not even possible as people were being buried in mass graves and many went missing. Estimatations of between 230,000-300,000 people died and many experienced injuries that later gave over to gangrene and loss of limbs. Countries around the world took notice and became aware of Haiti's situation of extreme poverty that existed before the earthqauke. In April of 2011, Michel Martelly won the presidential election against Mirlande Manigat. Also known as "Sweet Micky" the president is a former musician and businessman that made him an unlikely choice but also presented him as a president of the people.

Martelly visited Hope for the Children of Haiti to meet the kids, one of the highlights for them; however, things in Haiti have not changed as radically as some might have hoped. The Haitian Revolution 1804-1805 Dessalines is crowned Emperor Jacques I of Haiti. 20 May 1805 Dessalines ratifies Haiti’s first constitution. To strengthen national unity and bring together the country’s various factions, the constitution proclaims all Haitians black. The constitution also legitimizes Dessalines’ regime, legalizing structures set in place since independence. The constitution reaffirms the permanent abolition of slavery, that all Haitians are free and equal; and above all Haitians’ inalienable right to land ownership. Conclusion Upon declaring independence, Haiti claimed a singular place in world history. The Haitian revolution, lasting from 1791 to 1804, culminated in the first independent nation in the Caribbean, the second democracy in the western hemisphere, and the first black republic in the world. Since the revolution, over 200 years ago, Haiti has struggled with external and internal dilemmas. The revolutionary wars had destroyed nearly all of the country’s colonial infrastructure and production capabilities.

In the 1800s Europeans and Americans ostracized the fledgling nation politically and economically, contributing to Haiti’s decline from one of the world’s wealthiest colonies to one of its most impoverished countries. The 20th century ushered in an era of American occupation from 1915 to 1934 and totalitarian regimes under the Duvaliers from 1957 to 1987. After decades of political suppression, Haiti held new democratic elections and in 1991 President Jean-Bertrand Aristide took office. He was ousted just months later, and the following years were filled with coup d’états, military regimes, and daily violence. In 2006, René Préval was elected president and since then Haiti has experienced a period of relative political and social calm. This stability was shaken most recently in 2008 when Haiti was hit by four successive hurricanes over the course of just weeks. The natural disasters resulted in hundreds of deaths, injuries and lost homes. Famine and disease swept the country, exacerbated by Haiti’s lack of infrastructure or governmental services. Haiti will be recovering from these disasters for years, adding to its long list of challenges.

Already the country is crippled by poverty. Additionally, Haiti has been commonly misrepresented for decades. American media, for example, have equated Haitians with savage voodoo ceremonies, HIV/AIDS, and “boat people” refugees beginning in the early 1900s. Aside from ignoring factual evidence, these accounts disregard the complexity and richness of Haiti’s resilient culture and people. Despite its poverty, Haiti is clearly an exceptional nation, and one that has had a profound impact on the world since it was claimed by Columbus over 500 years ago. Once Upon a Time...: "I was born a slave, but nature gave me the soul of a free man." Haiti's Independence in 1804 Wunderkammer Friday, 1 January 2016 "I was born a slave, but nature gave me the soul of a free man." Haiti's Independence in 1804 1 January 1804, Haiti became the first black republic and second independent country in North America after the United States. “With factions, suspicions, want of bread and sugar, it is verily what they call déchiré, torn asunder this poor country: France and all that is French.

For, over seas too come bad news. In black Saint-Domingo, before that variegated Glitter in the Champs Elysées was lit for an Accepted Constitution, there had risen, and was burning contemporary with it, quite another variegated Glitter and nocturnal Fulgor, had we known it: of molasses and ardent-spirits; of sugar-boileries, plantations, furniture, cattle and men: sky high; the Plain of Cap Français one huge whirl of smoke and flame! What a change here, in these two years; since that first 'Box of Tricolor Cockades' got through the Custom-house, and atrabiliar Creoles too rejoiced that there was a levelling of Bastilles! Levelling is comfortable, as we often say: levelling, yet only down to oneself. Your pale-white Creoles, have their grievances: – and your yellow Quarteroons? And your dark-yellow Mulattoes? And your Slaves soot-black? Quarteroon Ogé, Friend of our Parisian Brissotin Friends of the Blacks, felt, for his share too, that Insurrection was the most sacred of duties.

So the tricolor Cockades had fluttered and swashed only some three months on the Creole hat, when Ogé's signal-conflagrations went aloft; with the voice of rage and terror.

Repressed, doomed to die, he took black powder or seedgrains in the hollow of his hand, this Ogé; sprinkled a film of white ones on the top, and said to his Judges, "Behold they are white;" – then shook his hand, and said "Where are the Whites, Ou sont les Blancs?" So now, in the Autumn of 1791, looking from the sky-windows of Cap Français, thick clouds of smoke girdle our horizon, smoke in the day, in the night fire; preceded by fugitive shrieking white women, by Terror and Rumour.” (Thomas Carlyle) Guillaume Guillon-Lethière's (1760 - 1832) allegoric imagination of two of independent Haiti's founding fathers, Alexandre Pétion (left) and Jean-Jacques Dessalines (right) taking "The Oath of the Ancestors" (1822) In 1780, half of all the coffee and more than one third of the sugar consumed in Europe came from Saint-Domingue, Haiti’s French half.

The island, known back then as Hispaniola, the other half of it was still part of the Spanish overseas empire, had evolved over a period of a hundred years from a pirate haunted backwater into the most profitable single colony of all the European powers. The success was made possible by the rigorous import of slave labour from Africa, begun by the Spanish in the 1500s after the indigenous population of about 300,000 Taíno was wiped out by force of arms, forced labour and epidemics in less than 50 years after Columbus had discovered the place in 1492. Not that the people kidnapped from Africa fared any better than the Taíno. The death rate of slaves forced to work on the sugar cane fields was appallingly high. Every second man, woman or child of the 800,000 people deported from Africa to Haiti over the 18th century died during the first five years on the island. Laws, like the “Code Noir” issued by Louis XIV, might have curbed the worst excesses of the slave-owners, but still conditions as well as the treatment of slaves were harsh.

Consequently, around two thirds of 18th century Haiti’s black population was African-born, with their identity as non-slaves as well as their customs still more or less intact, unsurprisingly, syncretic religions such as Haitian Vodou developed under the circumstances as well as slave revolts on an almost yearly basis. However, these were local affairs and always put down, even though the black population of 600,000 people living in French Saint-Domingue made up 90% of the colony’s entire population. When the great revolt began in the Mother Country in 1789 though, the bizarre world of colonial Haiti was about to be turned upside down as well. Charles Thévenin (1764 - 1830), sketch of "The insurrection of the slaves of Santo Domingo extends Paris. The free coloured men entered the Convention and calling for the abolition of slavery in the colonial empire of the Ancien Regime" (1794) It began in the Forest of Crocodiles, the Bois Caïman.

A houngan, a Vodou priest, and leader of a group of maroons, runaway slaves, named Dutty Boukman or “Book Man” to some, probably because he had attained a high level of self-education, called together other chiefs, houngans and mambos, priestesses, for a ceremony that marked the beginning of the Haitian Revolution. "The god who created the earth;“ Boukman prayed, “who created the sun that gives us light. The god who holds up the ocean; who makes the thunder roar. Our God who has ears to hear. You who are hidden in the clouds; who watch us from where you are. You see all that the white has made us suffer. The white man's god asks him to commit crimes. But the god within us wants to do good. Our god, who is so good, so just, He orders us to revenge our wrongs. It's He who will direct our arms and bring us the victory. It's He who will assist us. We all should throw away the image of the white men's god who is so pitiless.

Listen to the voice for liberty that sings in all our hearts." A week later, Haiti’s Plaine-du-Nord was in flames, hundreds of “grands blancs”, the plantation owners and “petits blancs“, the lower orders, were brutally killed, along with Boukman, who died fighting the well-armed colonials. But a new leader arose pretty soon, Toussaint Louverture, who led the slaves to conquer the whole of Saint-Domingue until 1799. Meanwhile, back home in revolutionary France, events came famously thick and fast. Basically, abolition of slavery in the colonies was on the agenda of many factions, few were serious and consequent about it though, and not only because of the economic consequences for raw material extraction and food production in the colonies. Nevertheless, slavery was abolished after 1794 and for a while Toussaint Louverture fought as a French Brigadier until he saw himself forced to turn against the colonial overlords again during a period of continuously changing allegiances with the Spanish and British regularly muscling in and tens of thousands died, of violence, disease and hunger. And then Napoleon and the Peace of Amiens came. "Burning of Cape Français. General revolt of the Blacks.

Massacre of the Whites.", Frontispiece from the book Saint-Domingue, ou Histoire de Ses Révolutions. ca. 1815 Emancipation was not exactly a top priority in Napoleon’s agenda. Reclaiming the profits of the former colony of Saint Domingue was, though, up to the point that he rather sold Louisiana to the young United States than accept an independent Haiti. And while Louverture had liberated the slaves in the Spanish part of the island as well, issued a constitution and appointed himself Governor for life, Napoleon was free to give his brother-in-law Leclerc his marching orders for Haiti. He arrived with 6,000 crack troops and naval support and fought Louverture to a standstill. General Toussaint L'Ouverture, the man who had led the greatest slave revolt since Spartacus and put the fear of God into slaveholders throughout the New World, surrendered himself, was shipped to France and died in prison, a couple of months after Leclerc himself succumbed to Yellow Fever in Haiti.

Leclerc’s express command to reinstate slavery had leaked, though, and when war broke out again in Europe in May 1803, the Royal Navy quickly isolated the French troops stationed in Haiti, those that had not yet died of various tropical diseases, and the island was up in arms again, this time under Louverture’s lieutenant Dessalines. He defeated the last French army, just 2,000 exhausted men under the Vicomte de Rochambeau, in November 1803. Independence from France was declared and Dessalines proclaimed himself Emperor in September 1804, a year before Napoleon crowned himself. The new Emperor of Haiti was murdered two years later by his officers and while the country staggered between massacres, general terror, state slavery and a quite sensible foreign policy that seemed to lead to a slow but steady recovery, Haiti’s back was broken when, in 1825, France forced the young nation to pay and absurdly high sum in reparations for territory and property lost during the revolution. Payment continued until 1947 and the island has not yet recovered from the blow.

And more about the Haitian Revolution on: HAITI | Haitian Support Project | We call upon everybody for support Mailing List Email: Two year old quake survivor Sarafina with Pierre Leroy, HPSP founder, January 2011. HPSP is helping Sarafina get a prosthetic device. HAITI – THE WORLD’S FIRST BLACK REPUBLIC Haitians remain fiercely proud that their country was born of the only successful slave revolt in the history of the world. A small group of slaves defeated the army of the most powerful dictator in the world, Napoleon Bonaparte, and simultaneously Spanish and British troops. And thus on January 1, 1804, Haiti became the first Black republic in the world and the second independent country in the New World. The Haitian slaves were inspired by the same ideals as the American and French Revolutions – liberty, equality, fraternity! – for all races. On December 6, 1492, Christopher Columbus and his men landed on the island of what is known today as Haiti and the Dominican Republic. They were met by the Arawak Indians.

Columbus described the Arawaks as “loveable, peaceful, tractable and praiseworthy.” The Arawaks called their homeland Kiskeya, Land of Beautiful Mountains. In the years that followed these gentle people were enslaved in mines and exposed to the ravages of European transmitted diseases. The Arawak population all but disappeared. The Spanish crown then granted approval to import Black slaves from Africa. In 1697, the Treaty of Ryswick was signed between Spain and France. The western part of Hispanola (the Spanish name for the island) was ceded to the French. The eastern part remained with Spain. The French portion of the island became known as Saint Domingue. St. Domingue became France’s most prosperous colony, known as the Pearl of the Antilles. The African slaves were often worked to death and then easily replaced by the arrival of more enslaved Africans. Soon the Black slave population of St. Domingue had reached 500,000. As history has so often shown where there is oppression there is resistance. Under the leadership of Toussaint L’Overture the slaves revolted. Toussaint became the most powerful man on the island.

He was promoted to the rank of general in the French army and in 1801 became governor. At a “peace” conference Toussaint was tricked by the French and taken prisoner. He was exiled to France and died in prison in 1803. But before leaving he predicted that the revolution would continue and be successful. His comrades Jean Jacques Dessalines, Henri Christophe and Alexandre Petion rallied their forces and valiantly struggled on. Napoleon sent 70 warships and 25,000 troops to suppress the revolt. These forces were resoundingly defeated. The world’s first Black republic was born from a successful slave rebellion. The embers of freedom that had been fanned would not die. The world’s most famous army was defeated by a band of slaves. Dessalines, Petion, and Christophe would not make the same mistake as Toussaint. They vowed to fight on to the end, liberty or death. On November 18, 1803 France’s General Rochambeau signed an armistice providing for the complete removal of French troops from Haitian soil and paving the way for the Louisiana Purchase.

Haiti’s independence was proclaimed in Gonaives on January 1, 1804. The superpowers of the day were not happy by this development. The United States, which still had slavery, refused to recognize Haiti. Haiti was isolated and its independence was often threatened. France forced Haiti to continue to pay a huge debt. Haiti’s freedom remained threatened. But Haiti was an inspiration for the liberation movements in Latin America. In fact material aide and training was given to Simon Bolivar (the Great Liberator) and his forces. HPSP • PO Box 496 • Woodstock, NY 12498 • 845-679-7320 • terry@haitiansupportproject.org • pierre@haitiansupportproject.org Milestones: 1784–1800 - Office of the Historian Milestones: 1784–1800 The United States and the Haitian Revolution, 1791–1804 The Haitian Revolution created the second independent country in the Americas after the United States became independent in 1783. U.S.

political leaders, many of them slaveowners, reacted to the emergence of Haiti as a state borne out of a slave revolt with ambivalence, at times providing aid to put down the revolt, and, later in the revolution, providing support to Toussaint L’Ouverture’s forces. Due to these shifts in policy and domestic concerns, the United States would not officially recognize Haitian independence until 1862. Toussaint L'Ouverture holds a printed copy of the Haitian Constitution of 1801. (Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division) Prior to its independence, Haiti was a French colony known as St. Domingue. St. Domingue’s slave-based sugar and coffee industries had been fast-growing and successful, and by the 1760s it had become the most profitable colony in the Americas. With the economic growth, however, came increasing exploitation of the African slaves who made up the overwhelming majority of the population. Prior to and after U.S. independence, American merchants enjoyed a healthy trade with St. Domingue. The French Revolution had a great impact on the colony. St.

Domingue’s white minority split into Royalist and Revolutionary factions, while the mixed-race population campaigned for civil rights. Sensing an opportunity, the slaves of northern St. Domingue organized and planned a massive rebellion which began on August 22, 1791. When news of the slave revolt broke out, American leaders rushed to provide support for the whites of St. Domingue. However, the situation became more complex when civil commissioners sent to St. Domingue by the French revolutionary government convinced one of the slave revolt leaders, Toussaint L’Ouverture, that the new French Government was committed to ending slavery. What followed over the next decade was a complex and multi-sided civil war in which Spanish and British forces also intervened. The situation in St. Domingue put the Democratic-Republican party and its leader, Thomas Jefferson, in somewhat of a political dilemma. Jefferson believed strongly in the French Revolution and the ideals it promoted, but as a Virginia slaveholder popular among other Virginia slaveholders, Jefferson also feared the specter of slave revolt. When faced with the question of what the United States should do about the French colony of St.

Domingue, Jefferson favored offering limited aid to suppress the revolt, but also suggested that the slaveowners should aim for a compromise similar to that Jamaican slaveholders made with communities of escaped slaves in 1739. Despite their numerous differences on other issues, Secretary of the Treasury and leader of the rival Federalist Party Alexander Hamilton largely agreed with Jefferson regarding Haiti policy. The Haitian revolution came to North American shores in the form of a refugee crisis. In 1793, competing factions battled for control of the then-capital of St. Domingue, Cap-Français (now Cap-Haïtien.) The fighting and ensuing fire destroyed much of the capital, and refugees piled into ships anchored in the harbor. The French navy deposited the refugees in Norfolk, Virginia. Many refugees also settled in Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York. These refugees were predominantly white, though many had brought their slaves with them. The refugees became involved in émigré politics, hoping to influence U.S. foreign policy. Anxieties about their actions, along with those of European radicals also residing in the United States, led to the passage of the Alien and Sedition Acts.

The growing xenophobia, along with temporarily improved political stability in France and St. Domingue, convinced many of the refugees to return home. The beginning of the Federalist administration of President John Adams signaled a change in policy. Adams was resolutely anti-slavery and felt no need to aid white forces in St. Domingue. He was also concerned that L’Ouverture would choose to pursue a policy of state-supported piracy like that of the Barbary States. Lastly, St. Domingue’s trade had partially rebounded, and Adams wished to preserve trade links with the colony. Consequently, Adams decided to provide aid to L’Ouverture against his British-supported rivals. This situation was complicated by the Quasi-War with France—L’Ouverture continued to insist that St. Domingue was a French colony even as he pursued an independent foreign policy. Under President Thomas Jefferson’s presidency, the United States cut off aid to L’Ouverture and instead pursued a policy to isolate Haiti, fearing that the Haitian revolution would spread to the United States. These concerns were in fact unfounded, as the fledgling Haitian state was more concerned with its own survival than with exporting revolution.

Nevertheless, Jefferson grew even more hostile after L’Ouverture’s successor, Jean-Jacques Dessalines, ordered the execution of whites remaining after the Napoleonic attempts to reconquer St. Domingue and reimpose slavery (French defeat led to the Louisiana Purchase.) Jefferson refused to recognize Haitian independence, a policy to which U.S. Federalists also acquiesced. Although France recognized Haitian independence in 1825, Haitians would have to wait until 1862 for the United States to recognize Haiti’s status as a sovereign, independent nation. Haiti: Maps, History, Geography, Government, Culture, Facts, Guide & Travel/Holidays/Cities Years After Earthquake, Haiti Still Struggles to Recover Geography Haiti, in the West Indies, occupies the western third of the island of Hispaniola, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. About the size of Maryland, Haiti is two-thirds mountainous, with the rest of the country marked by great valleys, extensive plateaus, and small plains. Government Republic with an elected government. History Explored by Columbus on Dec. 6, 1492, Haiti's native Arawaks fell victim to Spanish rule.

In 1697, Haiti became the French colony of Saint-Dominique, which became a leading sugarcane producer dependent on slaves. In 1791, an insurrection erupted among the slave population of 480,000, resulting in a declaration of independence by Pierre-Dominique Toussaint l'Ouverture in 1801. Napoléon Bonaparte suppressed the independence movement, but it eventually triumphed in 1804 under Jean-Jacques Dessalines, who gave the new nation the Arawak name Haiti . It was the world's first independent black republic. Haitian Revolution (1791-1804) | The Black Past: Remembered and Reclaimed Haitian Revolution (1791-1804) Back to Online Encyclopedia Index Image Ownership: Public Domain The Haitian Revolution has often been described as the largest and most successful slave rebellion in the Western Hemisphere. Slaves initiated the rebellion in 1791 and by 1803 they had succeeded in ending not just slavery but French control over the colony.

The Haitian Revolution, however, was much more complex, consisting of several revolutions going on simultaneously. These revolutions were influenced by the French Revolution of 1789, which would come to represent a new concept of human rights, universal citizenship, and participation in government. In the 18th century, Saint Dominigue, as Haiti was then known, became France's wealthiest overseas colony, largely because of its production of sugar, coffee, indigo, and cotton generated by an enslaved labor force. When the French Revolution broke out in 1789 there were five distinct sets of interest groups in the colony. There were white planters—who owned the plantations and the slaves—and petit blancs, who were artisans, shop keepers and teachers . Some of them also owned a few slaves. Together they numbered 40,000 of the colony’s residents. Many of the whites on Saint Dominigue began to support an independence movement that began when France imposed steep tariffs on the items imported into the colony. The planters were extremely disenchanted with France because they were forbidden to trade with any other nation. Furthermore, the white population of Saint-Dominique did not have any representation in France.

Despite their calls for independence, both the planters and petit blancs remained committed to the institution of slavery. The three remaining groups were of African descent: those who were free, those who were slaves, and those who had run away. There were about 30,000 free black people in 1789. Half of them were mulatto and often they were wealthier than the petit blancs. The slave population was close to 500,000. The runaway slaves were called maroons; they had retreated deep into the mountains of Saint Dominigue and lived off subsistence farming. Haiti had a history of slave rebellions; the slaves were never willing to submit to their status and with their strength in numbers (10 to 1) colonial officials and planters did all that was possible to control them. Despite the harshness and cruelty of Saint Dominigue slavery, there were slave rebellions before 1791. One plot involved the poisoning of masters. Inspired by events in France, a number of Haitian-born revolutionary movements emerged simultaneously.

They used as their inspiration the French Revolution’s “Declaration of the Rights of Man.” The General Assembly in Paris responded by enacting legislation which gave the various colonies some autonomy at the local level. The legislation, which called for “all local proprietors...to be active citizens,” was both ambiguous and radical. It was interpreted in Saint Dominigue as applying only to the planter class and thus excluded petit blancs from government. Yet it allowed free citizens of color who were substantial property owners to participate. This legislation, promulgated in Paris to keep Saint Dominigue in the colonial empire, instead generated a three-sided civil war between the planters, free blacks and the petit blancs. However, all three groups would be challenged by the enslaved black majority which was also influenced and inspired by events in France. Led by former slave Toussaint l’Overture , the enslaved would act first, rebelling against the planters on August 21, 1791. By 1792 they controlled a third of the island. Despite reinforcements from France, the area of the colony held by the rebels grew as did the violence on both sides.

Before the fighting ended 100,000 of the 500,000 blacks and 24,000 of the 40,000 whites were killed. Nonetheless the former slaves managed to stave off both the French forces and the British who arrived in 1793 to conquer the colony, and who withdrew in 1798 after a series of defeats by l’Overture’s forces. By 1801 l’Overture expanded the revolution beyond Haiti, conquering the neighboring Spanish colony of Santo Domingo (present-day Dominican Republic ). He abolished slavery in the Spanish-speaking colony and declared himself Governor-General for life over the entire island of Hispaniola. At that moment the Haitian Revolution had outlasted the French Revolution which had been its inspiration. Napoleon Bonaparte, now the ruler of France, dispatched General Charles Leclerc, his brother-in-law, and 43,000 French troops to capture L’Overture and restore both French rule and slavery. L’Overture was taken and sent to France where he died in prison in 1803.

Jean-Jacques Dessalines , one of l’Overture’s generals and himself a former slave, led the revolutionaries at the Battle of Vertieres on November 18, 1803 where the French forces were defeated. On January 1, 1804, Dessalines declared the nation independent and renamed it Haiti. France became the first nation to recognize its independence. Haiti thus emerged as the first black republic in the world, and the second nation in the western hemisphere (after the United States) to win its independence from a European power. Sources:

Question: Which country became the world's first black republic upon independence in 1804?
Answer: HAITI